The Shins, plus The Head and The Heart and Blind Pilot
Frequently asked questions about attending a show at Les Schwab Amphitheater
Bulletin E-Edition:
Sunday, February 5th, 2012
Remember yesterday when I said I’d parse the Sasquatch festival lineup for clues about who might play Bend’s Les Schwab Amphitheater on Memorial Day weekend?
Well, it may be too late for that.
Today, the amphitheater announced two concerts early in its 2012 season. The details:
The Shins
with Blind Pilot and The Head and The Heart
Friday, May 25
$35 plus fees in advance, $38 day of show
Tickets on sale to the general public at 10 a.m. Friday, special online presale Thursday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. (Presale password: rivershow)
Beck
with Metric
Sunday, May 27
$41 plus fees in advance, $43 day of show
Tickets on sale to the general public at 10 a.m. Friday, special online presale Thursday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. (Presale password: rivershow)
Tickets will be available via www.bendconcerts.com, and The Ticket Mill in the Old Mill District will be open Friday and Saturday and will offer a locals’ deal: The first 300 tickets purchased with cash will save on service charges.
This is terrific news for the amphitheater and the summer concert season as a whole. Now the question is: Will the Schwab be able to get someone for Saturday, May 26 and, if so, who? Based on the Sasquatch lineup, the reasonable guesses include Jack White, Bon Iver, Tenacious D and perhaps Pretty Lights.
Sunday, October 3rd, 2010
(We’ve got some catching up to do here at Frequency, where posts have become too infrequent recently. So here’s part one of “Better Late Than Never Week.” Today’s episode: Blind Pilot videos.)
No doubt about it, Blind Pilot — fast-rising, Portland-based creators of genial, gentle indie-folk-pop — is a well-oiled musical machine. Frontman Israel Nebeker writes catchy, compelling songs. His six-piece band is a highly skilled amalgam of moving parts that somehow finds a nice balance between breathless urgency and measured restraint. On stage, they seem humble and likable; they do their jobs with an easy, understated grace that’s hard to find in a world where bands must increasingly rely on bells and whistles (in addition to — sometimes instead of — songs and skills) to get noticed in an overpopulated music scene.
But for whatever reason, Blind Pilot doesn’t resonate with me. I recognize their considerable strengths, but can’t personally connect with what they do so well. And that’s OK. Lots of people can. Lots of people love them, as evidenced by the large crowd that showed up to their show Wednesday night at the Tower Theatre. It was the best-attended concert so far in the wonderful PDXchange Program series, and the band’s first show since they played two nights at the spacious, 780-capacity Wonder Ballroom back in December.
Facts are facts: Blind Pilot is a much bigger band/draw than my brain seems to think they are. And they’re going to get even bigger when their new album comes out next year, for all those reasons I listed above. Because in this missed connection, it’s not them, it’s me.
(Before we get to the videos, one note: In Friday’s GO! Magazine, I wrote a little review of Bend artist Sara Jackson-Holman’s performance at MusicfestNW and noted her occasional nervousness on stage. That was true when I wrote it, and will probably be true in the near future. But during Jackson-Holman’s set opening for Blind Pilot at the Tower, jitters were few and far between. It was the best set I’ve seen from her so far, with covers of Leonard Cohen and the Postal Service sprinkled among songs from her debut album “When You Dream.”)
Here’s Blind Pilot playing a new song, which they declined to name when asked by someone in the audience.
And here’s “Go On, Say It” from the breakthrough album “3 Rounds and a Sound.”
Friday, September 24th, 2010
Leif James performs at the 2009 Bend Roots Revival.
It’s Bend Roots Revival weekend! Our town’s foremost celebration of local music (and other arts) moves to a new home this year, the Century Center at the corner of Century Drive and Commerce Avenue, just behind the old Brightwood Mill building. This week’s GO! has all the info you need to enjoy the festival to the fullest:
–A story on Roots founder Mark Ransom, Century Center owner Dave Hill, and how the two came together to give the event a new home
–A full schedule of performances
–A breakdown of the lineup, including when and where you can get the best bang for your buck, depending on what kind of Roots experience (rootsy, rockin’, eclectic, kid-friendly, etc.) you want
Bend Roots isn’t your only solid option tonight, either. Over at the Domino Room, agit-punks Against Me! will bring their arena-ready pop hooks and deadly earnest outlook on life to Bend’s disaffected youth. To quote a friend of mine: “The idea of standing around with a bunch of kids that think they can change the world with their ‘zine sort of bums me out.” Me too! But the idea of going and pumping my fist along with songs like this one sounds totally awesome! Anyway, read my colleague David Jasper’s take on the band’s career(ism) by clicking here.
Elsewhere in this week’s music section: Blind Pilot plays the PDXchange Program at the Tower Theatre, a bunch of local teen bands are going to play a benefit at CAT6 Video Lounge, and Redmond High School hosts an ABBA tribute! Need more options? Check out The Bulletin’s complete music listings.
Friday, July 23rd, 2010
Henry Abel’s PDXchange Program, which brings Portland-based indie bands to the Tower Theatre, picked up some serious momentum last night when Abel announced his next three shows:
Sept. 8 — The Thermals
Sept. 29 — Blind Pilot
Oct. 27 — Laura Veirs and Weinland
What a score for PDXchange. The Thermals and Blind Pilot — two very different bands — are the series’ biggest names yet. Blind Pilot will play the Tower just weeks after a slot at the gigantic Austin City Limits Festival in Texas, and a year after the brought some indie-pop flavor to the Sisters Folk Festival. And political punk-poppers The Thermals will play Bend the day after their new album, “Personal Life,” is released.
Plus … how cool is it gonna be to see The Thermals at the Tower Theatre!?
Not to mention, both Veirs and Weinland frontman Adam Shearer are brilliant songwriters and terrific performers.
Man, that is a solid lineup of shows. Kudos, Henry. Anyway, local openers will be added and sale dates for tickets will be announced, and you can be among the first to get that kind of information by signing up for PDXchange’s mailing list at the website.
Friday, September 11th, 2009
I’m going to level with you, Frequency readers: This week, I went a little nutso with the Sisters Folk Festival coverage. But there’s a good reason for that, and that reason is this: The 2009 Sisters Folk Festival’s lineup is its best yet (where “yet” = “in the four years I’ve been covering it”). I picked out three very different artists and wrote features on each of them, but if time and space were no object, I would’ve liked to have given the same treatment to another half-dozen folk fest performers.
But time and space does matter, and here’s what’s in GO! Magazine today:
SISTERS FOLK FESTIVAL
-Peter Rowan played extensively with both Bill Monroe and Jerry Garcia. Think about that. Pretty cool. I got a few stories out of him.
-Blind Pilot’s profile has risen fast over the past year, and I’d be willing to be they’re not done rising. Read up on them right here.
-Local gal Anastacia Beth Scott has a new album, a spot on the folk fest’s schedule, and a fast-maturing songwriting style. Life is good.
-Here’s the festival’s full schedule, as well as all the info you need on tickets.
And in case you missed it yesterday, I’ve compiled a mixtape of 17 songs by folk fest artists to help you make your decisions on who to see. You can download it for free by clicking here.
OTHER STUFF
-The Underground welcomes its first big out-of-town act when the rock/pop/hip-hop duo HardNox performs Saturday night.
-Blues fans should be licking their chops about Hill Country Revue coming to town. This North Mississippi Allstars side project does it down, dirty and Delta.
-This is crazy: Silver Moon Brewing is hosting acts from France, Mexico, Hawaii and Alaska this week. Read all about the road-weary rockers here.
In other news, we’ve got a review of reggae-hop dude (and former Bendite) Matisyahu’s new album, my colleague Patrick Cliff checked out the annual Dixieland festival in La Pine, and something or other happened with The Beatles, a band I’ve totally heard of.
All those Sisters Folk Festival articles should be free and available to anyone. The others might be for subscribers only. But whatever you’re interested in, you should grab a print copy of The Bulletin today to see the groovy rendering of Sisters by Greg Cross on the cover of GO! Magazine.
Monday, May 18th, 2009
It’s hard to come back to work after a weekend as glorious as that one, isn’t it? What a beautiful couple of days in Central Oregon.
Now, though, I’m back at my desk, and there’s a big, stupid window right next to me, teasing me with oodles of warm sunshine.
Here’s how I’m consoling myself:
-New Jersey indie-rock kingpins The Wrens have some new songs on their MySpace. With three albums in 15 years, these dudes move slower than just about anyone, so fresh material is always welcome.
-The live-session site HearYa has several perfect-sounding songs from Portland’s fast-rising acoustic-pop band Blind Pilot. Gorgeous.
-New Modest Mouse songs are starting to show up. Stereogum has one here, and right here is the new video for “Satellite Skin.” The band has a new compilation of b-sides and unreleased tracks coming out this summer.
-If you spend any time at all on music blogs, you’ll undoubtedly see that prog-metal heroes Mastodon played “Oblivion” on Letterman the other night. Don’t watch it. The music sounds OK, but the vocals are a mess. Instead, watch this much-better-sounding performance:
OK, I think that’s all. I’m going to try to duck out of here early to watch the new “Star Trek” movie! Because … sitting in a dark theater is one way to enjoy the weather? Uh …
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